FlintlockJazz

The sub-races thing is a good question. I know people are thinking they are just like different races on earth, I have to disagree: the different non-human sub-races have drastically different special abilities whereas the human ones all have the same they just have different appearances. If Pale Elf and a Wood Elf get together which ability do their offspring inherit? Can they end up with the looks of a Wood Elf with the ability of a Pale Elf? If so, why isn't it available? I'm not saying it's not possible, just that we don't really know from the information we have been given. Who knows, maybe the less 'extreme' looking Pale Elves (the ones with more normal pigmentation you can choose and blonde hair) are supposed to be due to Wood Elf ancestry?

It is indeed a failure on Obsidian's part when there are people (I'm one of them) who will not buy their product unless a third party mod, which for the most part provides basic options/features/improvements that should be in the game anyways, is updated for it. In other words, we shouldn't even need the IE Mod. What it does should already be in the game. Especially at this point. Many of the features you want IEmod for I do not want any where near the game. It is simply not possible to satisfy every single person, hence the existence of mods.

Eothas is not dead, in fact he's feeling better. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBxMPqxJGqI

Yeah, Elfs with Beards!

It probably takes a while for the tea to take effect, and was more to settle down a 24-hour bug than to actually cure it. The caravan master says you'll be fine as long as you keep drinking anyway, further evidence in my mind that it's just gastric flu. Calisca and Heodan both probably died because they caught your bug and shat their innards out while unconscious...

I like to think there's more to it than that. That there is something else going on that we have yet to discover, something that would put Iovara in her place the obnoxious GMPC that she is... Ahem, I mean, something that makes the whole thing even more interesting and complex. Gonna chuck that wench back into the cycle whether she likes it or not...

On the note of universal, I actually been wondering: does the Priest talent boosts two weapons depending on which god they follow also work with them regardless of weapon type? Like the Magran one that boosts arquebuses and swords?

Well, in that case I will just drop the attribute spread that I am using. My Scholar of Pain served me well enough in a party without hirelings at act 2 PoTD, even against those Forge Knight bastards. Pale Elf 17 MIG 08 CON 19 DEX 10 PER 16 INT 08 RES I think that maybe I could get better damage from lowering DEX to max MIG, and that Island Aumana could be a more effective race choice, if less aestheticaly pleasing to me. Compared to Edér, my Scholar of Pain dies slightly earlier, but does much more damage during the beggining of the fight, and the greater duration of Barrage is quite noticeable. I equiped her with Tall Grass, since I had no barbarians, but she really did shine with Firebrand. Maybe it is not an as effective user of Tall Grass and Firebrand as a properly built Barbarian or Rogue, but the Scholar of Pain proved herself versatile, durable enough to hold the line against multiple foes, and very good at throwing Fans of Flame throught entire mobs. Interesting! I wouldn't have thought of dropping con and resolve on a Fighter, completely different from the typical build, I like!

Afraid I can't really help you right now, since I am a serial re-starter, am no minmaxer, still haven't played the patch 3.0 official release, and was still testing the build for the first time when it hit. Am not interested in min-maxing myself, was just nosy to see what you had done to be honest. Never mind then, I seem unable to get the time to play it myself at the mo, and when I do I spend more time trying to decide race rather than actually playing. :D

Well, we would have to take into account how many attacks you would get during those seconds, but I feel that it is not nothing if your character is not a slow hitter. It also depends on how long the battle lasts, since shorter fights will allow the Fighter with highter INT to make better use of such skills, and even on some longer fights often the most decisive part of a battle is the beggining. And said discrepances get even greater if said Fighter has 16 INT instead of 3 or 10. So the value of INT depends directly on how long your fights last compared to the duration of the buffs. And on comsumables and items, I think that if my Fighter has good Dextery and Might, is the frontliner with the second hightest accuracy, gets +20 from an instant buff, and stands right on my enemies' faces without dying, then he is the one who is best equiped to unload some Fan of Flames scrolls on my foes or summon Firebrand. In that case, I'd rather leave PER at base and not max MIG and DEX so I could empower that initial burst and make Firebrand itself last the whole fight. So Fighters do benefit from INT. I don't know if minmaxing so that I have maxed PER, DEX and MIG is better, as I am no pro and no minmaxer, but as far as I am seeing it, the effort is paying off on PoTD with my current party. This is probably a derail of the thread, but I would be interested to see the stats you would take for such a Fighter, as I am considering playing a 'smart' Fighter for roleplay reasons and curious to see how others balanced it.

I only got to play around with it briefly last night, but the expansion has brought back beards for Pale Elves. Anyone got any portraits for bearded Pale Elves yet? I been looking and not found anything suitable yet. Well, aside from possibly this one:

I was wondering this myself!

Ladies please, lets just all agree that I'm the sexiest one here, okay?

Regarding Aloth, the short story helps tie them together more. Trying not to spoil it for those who haven't read it, it basically shows how one essentially lead to the other.

Grimoires cannot be enchanted. As I mentioned though, the damage of spells can be boosted with buffs and talents, its just the approach for them is is different compared to a weapon. For example, a direct damage spell like Chill Fog becomes a lot stronger if the Wizard has the Secrets of Rime talent and can also be used as an interruption tool if you pick up Interrupting Blows. As another example, Minoletta's Minor Missiles (Since you mentioned it) only deals around 12 - 22 damage per projectile. This damage however can be boosted with a high Might score, so if you have a Might score of 19 for example, this becomes 15 - 27 damage per projectile. Since the spell does Corrode damage as well, if you grab the Spirit of Decay talent, that's a 20% damage boost to the spell. Finally, since the spell is a projectile, it does work with Penetrating Shot, which allows the spell to bust through an enemy's DR. Toss in Combusting Wounds and you add an extra 5 burn damage that ignores DR to each projectile. Ok maybe I over elaborated, but you can see the spell becomes very powerful under the right conditions, to the point it even matches higher level spells. Weapons can also be boosted with the appropriate talents though, becoming stronger as well, and those higher level spells can also be made even more powerful with talents as well. For instance, you mention Might boosting Minoletta's Minor Missiles, that Might score will ALSO boost up the damage from weapons, bows benefit from penetrating shot to burst through enemy DR as well, Spirit of Decay will boost the damage from weapons enchanted with Corrode lashes, etc. Stormcaller with the Storm talent and the Ranger ability Stunning Shots is quite powerful for instance. So being able to boost low level spells doesn't really make up for them not leveling up with the character, since you can do that with the higher level spells too and make them even better than what the low level ones can reach or use them with weapons.

"Stop touching me!"

I would probably go for Canada if they would have me. Don't need to learn a new language, similar in some ways but completely different in other ways (better usually), no giant snakes as far as I'm aware, etc. Japan I would like to visit but certain things I hear make me think I would not like to live there. New Zealand would be my other choice.

Honestly, if you didn't find Minsc's "Full plate and packing steel" comments and Edwin's "Mouse magic" and various other "humourous repeated clicking responses" of the other characters immersion breaking then you won't find the backer NPCs immersion-breaking, and while the graveyard scribblings are potentially immersion-breaking they won't show up unless you click on them.

Omigod, are you saying what I think/want you to be saying? That they have pointy hats in the game??! Please, good doctor, tell me it is so! It doesn't have an in-game texture yet though. I... I'm in love!!! Finally, I can look awesome!

I'm with AndreaColombo and others, I prefer the more realistic, toned-down, not over the top stuff and don't really like the overly stylised armours some have put up here, nor find it fitting to Pillars. Ironically, I find the huge shoulder-pads over-stylised High Fantasy stuff to be unmemorable to be honest. By trying to be cool and have loads of stuff nothing about them stands out, the green armour above being an example for me: all I remember is that it glows green, nothing else about the armour really sticks out for me. Bland. A lot of those armours also stink of "BMW Driver" for me: I feel like the wearer is overcompensating for something, something they lack either in ability so they have to try hard to look badass or down there...

Bleh, many of them are just so bland I gots to say. I's very peculiar about me's armours, aren't we my precious? *Steals cookie jar* *eats all the cookies* *spaffs into jar because he's a bastard*

There wasn't anything I was really hyped for, I actually felt kinda meh about gaming in general, but then bloody Luridis showed those trailers for No Man's Sky. I had heard of it but never really got round to looking into it until now, but goddamn that is like my perfect game! Damn you Luridis!

It's been stagnant and rotting for a while. Recent events have pretty much just ensured that it's nothing but a hollowed out corpse. Oh there will be those that use the tag as a community thing, and there will be others that hang onto it for every scrap of relevance they can muster, but as a driving force and a catalyst it is very much dead. Cool, thanks for the update. Dunno what the recent events were but maybe now people I know will settle down some. Honestly thought this thing would never die, figured it would be a constant background noise to gaming forever (from both sides).

Omigod, are you saying what I think/want you to be saying? That they have pointy hats in the game??! Please, good doctor, tell me it is so!

Yes, I was trying to remember the name they gave for it, I knew it was Rymrgand's something (rule?), and they believe it is because of entropy but at least according to the dwarf lady animancer you talk to on the tree they don't seem to really know why the souls are breaking down and have been trying to undo the effects of entropy. There also doesn't seem to be a mention of any "new" souls being made, so what happens with population growth? I didn't mean to imply the souls are being deliberately targeted and broken down, rather that they are falling apart even further due to being shards of a broken being, kinda like how the pieces of a broken vase continue to crumble after the vase has been broken.